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Thursday, September 3, 2009

Europe or Australia?

Wednesday 9.2.09Are we in Europe? Did we fly to the wrong city? Brisbane is a big city with lots of people and it seriously reminds me of Europe. The people have the same fashion, cars, lifestyle, and food minus the beautiful old buildings and amazing architecture. I kept telling Brett how I felt like I was in Italy all over again. Funny seeing that I thought I was coming to the outback… Today was an impressively productive first day in Australia. We spent a total of 3 hours, yes 3 hours, in some form of bank to exchange all our US travelers’ checks and open a bank account. During the 2.5 hour visit in NAB (National Australian Bank) we were delighted to be helped by Lesley, a fellow Brisbane resident. In the 2.5 hours we managed to discuss actual banking topics for maybe 15 minutes and for the remainder of our visit she proceeded to tell us about her 3 daughters and her husband. So we have a bank account and lots of cash burning a hole in our money belt just waiting to be handed to some nice van owner. Brett and I have an appointment to look at a van tonight and we are praying that the timing is just perfect and it is meant to be ours. If so, I am sure we will do a little shopping tomorrow to equip the van, get some food and head up the coast. Oh, I do hope we get this van!

Friday 9.4.09We looked at the van and we are pretty sure we are going to get it today. We are just waiting for the owner to get a road worthy inspection this afternoon and than if all goes well it will be ours! I'll keep you posted. In the event that we get it, start praying now for our adventure of driving on the right. Or is it the left, ok no the right! Oh man I am already confused.

Brett and I started Thursday morning with a run around town to get an idea of the city and well, just plain work out. It was a bit of an interesting run considering you have to stop every block to wait for a light to change. I guess you could say it was my kind of run and not so much Brett's! We saw lots of stuff and made mental notes of restaurants and shops to head back to.

We also spent literally from 9am until 4pm walking around the city. We went in random shops, talk to people about cell phones, met and took pictures with 4 pretty famous rugby players from the Qantas Wallabies and laid out/napped for a bit at the South Bank Beach. Yes, a beach. The city has built a beach right along the river with real sand and fresh water. It was so fun to play frisbee, lay out and watch the locals. I am pretty sure we plan to head there again today since it is so nice here and perfect for laying out!

So far, we have had an awesome time! We miss everyone and want to thank everyone for their prayers and thoughts while we are adventuring! Thank you for the great goodbye party and we love sharing our stories with you. Hopefully you are reading!